Frankie just came in from the back yard with a satisfied look on his face — and a little piece of dog poop caught in the fur around his mouth. This made me very unhappy for a variety of reasons, but not for the most obvious one: the fact that he was feasting on his…
Will My Dog Hate Me for Fostering?
Before Frankie came to live with me, he spent a good deal of time in the care of my friend Rebecca, who rescued and fostered him. As I’ve described in the introduction to my new book, AM I BORING MY DOG, she won the affections of the shy guy — to the point that he…
Cruel to be kind
I’ve just finished lunch. The point here is not the food — although my foodie friends would no doubt beg to differ — but the ‘tude. Frankie’s attitude that is. During the entire meal, he was in his traditional spot on a hemp rug about four feet away from the dining room table, staring at…
How to find a good dog trainer, Part 1
After another bout of a mystery intestinal problem — apparently not related to his diabetes, fortunately, but still worrying — Frankie’s feeling much better, and expressing himself through enthusiastic doggie flatulence. It’s a good thing he’s little. And that I wasn’t planning any dinner parties. So, as promised, I’m beginning my series on how to…
Dog trainers, behaviorists & dupes, oh my!
Somehow, my post on how to find a good dog trainer keeps getting sidetracked, and I’ve begun to realize why. It’s not just that I felt the need debunk the most popular notions of training so as to put the subject into context. It’s also that training is unregulated, and therefore difficult to discuss without…
Dinner at the Dog Dominance Cafe
Honestly, I was planning to forgo all negativity, to stop writing posts with clever — but hostile — titles about a certain TV personality. I was planning to — and still will, I promise — write about how to find a good dog trainer. Then, yesterday, someone posted a link on Twitter to a dog…
Dr. DogLove, or How I Learned to Start Worrying & Loathe Cesar Millan
Sorry about the bad movie pun — it’s been a long, though terrific weekend. My first book signing/talk for Am I Boring My Dog, at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, was a great success. Lots of people and their dogs turned up and a good time was had by all. As I noted on Facebook, I…
Celebrating 5770
I’ve been thinking about sacrilege lately, about the repercussions of bucking religious tradition. It’s a bit of a puzzlement because the religion I grew up with, Judaism, doesn’t offer a clearly defined vision of the sinners’ afterlife. The fact that I had to google the term for the Jewish hell, Gehenna, to get a definition…
Cesar’s Way Isn’t the Only Way
I mentioned in my last post that if you ask 10 different people what dog training is, you’ll get 10 different answers. I’d like to revise that statement. I suspect a majority would say dog training is what Cesar Millan does on his National Geographic Channel show, The Dog Whisperer. Earlier this week, a friend…
What is dog training & why do it?
Frankie doesn’t know it yet, but we’re about set out on a new adventure together: Training. And yes, this idea was inspired by his last adventure, being the star of a series of promotional videos for Am I Boring My Dog. It’s not so much that I minded crouching down behind a table with my…